Branson’s stunt could achieve the impossible

WATCHING pictures of Sir Richard Branson casually chucking a globe in the air yesterday, people might be forgiven for thinking that his professed desire to save the Earth from potential climatic disaster is little more than a self-aggrandising PR stunt.

WATCHING pictures of Sir Richard Branson casually chucking a globe in the air yesterday, people might be forgiven for thinking that his professed desire to save the Earth from potential climatic disaster is little more than a self-aggrandising PR stunt. After all, the man can’t lose.

But the Virgin founder and boss is a man of many parts and a true child of his time. His can-do Sixties idealist credentials have not become tarnished or eroded by political ambition, cynicism and fatigue.

His story is generally one of unending success. He doesn’t know the meaning of failure and his energy would be formidable in someone half his age.

He also doesn’t know if what he is proposing is possible – but he’s prepared to put a little of his money where his mouth is, and there’s certainly no harm in trying: most of the world’s great discoveries have been made by inspired amateurs.

Governments, by comparison, do not have an enviable track record of getting things right, or even done.

If Sir Richard’s patronage helps find a solution to climate change he’s a hero (and he may well get to own or patent the process too, for all we know). If he doesn’t he won’t have to pay out a penny. The man’s a marketing genius.

But he is known to be someone who can read the runes quite accurately. It’s his speciality. If he says the planet is in danger, people may actually sit up and take notice. He didn’t get where he is today by being often wrong.

The aim is nothing short of staggering: to find a way of removing at least one billion tons of carbon from the atmosphere a-year. For that the inventor will win #12.8m and probably also be heralded as the saviour of mankind.

It is not a lot of money and governments could easily dwarf it for research if they put their minds to it rather than paying lip service to the idea while pursuing policies which exacerbate the situation.

Nevertheless the problem has never been summed up so concisely.

We also have to stop putting the carbon up there in the first place and transforming jungles into flatlands in pursuit of more hamburgers. But if we could do all these things then we may not cost our children the Earth.

For a species that discovered how to split the atom, such ingenuity may still find a way. And #12.8m is not a bad incentive.